Monday, January 13, 2014

Why Do They Call It “Birthright”?

Almost all of the boys in this Birthright group put on tefillin, but a couple of them refused. I spoke to the ones who refused, giving them one reason after another why they should be running to put them on, but to no avail. Their main objection was empty, “It’s not for me.”

“Of course they are for you. Your mother is Jewish so you are Jewish, and this is what Jews have been doing for thousands of years,” I told them.

Refusal after refusal, all with no good reason…then I pointed at them and asked, “Would you get serious with a non-Jewish girl?” They said that they would.

“Would you really marry a non Jewish girl?” I asked.

“Of course, if I loved her,” they answered.

“That’s the real problem,” I told them. “Every American Jewish boy I have met who strongly refused to put on tefillin, would marry a non Jewish girl!”

“What’s wrong with that?”

“It would mean that your family would be cut off from the Jewish people. Your children would not be Jews.”

“I’ll raise my children Jewish,” one of them insisted.

“That won’t make them Jewish,” I tried to explain. “You are doing exactly what every enemy of the Jewish people has always wanted. You are cutting off the Jewish people. You were created a Jew and you should make a Jewish family.”

“If my children follow the Jewish religion they will be Jews,” one argued.

“No, they won’t. Why do you think they call the program you are on, “Birthright”? Because you were born to it… because your mother is Jewish so are you Jewish, and that makes Israel your inheritance. Making a Jewish family, living in Israel, keeping the Torah…these are your Birthright, and if you do not treasure these things you are throwing away your inheritance.”

Something that belongs to them and is so immensely valuable, lying at their feet, and they will not bend to pick it up! Maybe later? As least they have the information now.